Kennecott Day Trip

I have spent a little time watching my nephew Rowan and one day while he was over to play, we all took a day trip to see the Kennecott Copper mine.

Slurpees in the car on the way

At the visitor's center


In front of the mine



Rowan adored this little mine-car thingy


The essential standing-in-front-of-the-giant-truck-tire shot

I hadn't been to the mine since I was a little kid, so it was fun to go again. Plus it was a great place for Kevin to try out my camera's miniature setting.

They look like little models. So fun!

On the way home, we had to stop at Copperton Park to let the kids play.

That mine is really huge, and I actually learned something not only about the mining and refining process of copper, but also what a bunch of buildings and structure were used for around the valley. A lot of them I would see nearly every day and wonder what the heck they were used for; now I know. See, you can learn something new everyday.

Fair Play

It's September and that means it's State Fair time. The last time we were at the State Fair was a couple of years ago, so we decided it would be fun for Abi to go again this year.

Abi has a little apprehension when it comes to animals, especially bigger animals that aren't dogs or cats. I was hoping that she would have fun anyway.

The first thing we saw when we got to the fair was the pigs. Most of them were sleeping (under a blanket of flies- ewww), but Abi didn't think they were cute. She cried. I got a little worried and hoped that this wouldn't be the norm for the night. Then we got to the sheep and goats and she started to cheer up a little bit.

This goat kept trying to eat Abi's stroller.

We also saw the pigeons/poultry (they even had an emu), bunnies, and cows. Next we saw the fruits and vegetables, which is one of our favorite parts. You get to see some crazy stuff. Like this onion.

Biggest onion I've ever seen.

And this watermelon.

90 lb watermelon

And these pumpkins.

This pumpkin weighed almost 1000 lbs!

They also had some honey bees working in a hive that you could see inside.


Next we saw a Utah wildlife exhibit were they had some stuffed native game animals and birds and tanks with live native fish.

Abi and I compared our wing-span with these wild birds.

Then we looked at some beautiful blooms.

I'm growing these next year

After that, while we were looking at the photography on display in the art gallery, Abi asked, "Abi ride a horse?" I was a little surprised, again because of the anxiety she seems to get around larger animals. I sort of put it off, but she kept asking, "Abi ride a horse, please?" over and over. We couldn't say no; she said "please".

She's only two, but she rode like a big kid, all by herself. I was really proud.

To finish off the night Abi rode a few rides...






...and ate some cotton candy.



Abi had a blast and when we got home she would not stop talking about it.

"See the amimals?" (I didn't misspell, that's how she says it)

"Abi ride a horse."

"Piggy's scary."

"Goat eat Abi's stroller."

So fun. Can't wait till next year.

One of the Family

I was thinking (rare thing, that) and realized that we've had this blog for almost two whole years and have totally neglected one of the members of our family, our yellow lab, Oakley. I'll remedy that today.

Here's Oakley.


This picture was taken the day we brought her home.

Kevin had an impulse one day (like we all get, mine usually happen at the craft store, or in the health and beauty aisle at the mega-mart), and decided that we needed to have a family dog. I initially was against the idea, not because I don't like dogs, or animals in general, but because we didn't have our own house. We were living in Kevin's parents' old house with my sister and her husband before Kevin's parents sold it. Also, my sister and brother-in-law brought a dog with them when they moved in. I just didn't think it would be a great idea. But, Kevin was persistent and began to look through the on-line classifieds to see if he could find any that he might want. It didn't take very long before he found Oakley's picture and was hooked. He had to have her. So, I reluctantly gave in and we picked her up later that day. She was a little wild, kind of chubby and really nervous (she was quite flatulent during the car ride home), but after some patience, training, maturing, and 2 pair of black high heels (and a short list of other things she chewed to bits) later... well, the rest is pretty much history.

Flash forward to today, and Oakley is 3 years old, mellow, gentle and about as sweet as dogs come. Here's some more stuff you should know about her.

Oakley is very cool.

She snores (and sleep-snorts) like an angel.


She sometimes thinks she's a lap-dog.


She knows a few tricks.


She'll do anything for attention.


She's nailed the "puppy-dog eye" look.



She likes it when she gets to see her friend Penny.

She's great with kids.

We love our Oakley and are so glad that she happened to come into our lives.

See, Mother Nature does have a sense of humor.

What

the

What?

Yes, this is a tomato. Yes this is only one tomato. Kind of blows your mind, doesn't it?

Firework Freak-Out

July in Utah is fun. First we've got the 4th where we all have barbeques and do fireworks, then in the same month, we get to have the 24th (Pioneer Day) were we get to have more barbeques and fireworks. Who wouldn't like that?

This Pioneer Day, we had a barbeque at my parents' house with all the family. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures because I forgot my camera and Kevin didn't want to run back home and get it for me (sheesh). One of our -the kids- assignments was to bring fireworks, so we could all have a nice big firework show after dinner. (And did I mention that Utah just legalized aerial fireworks? I guess we were tired of losing all that revenue, and tax money, to Wyoming every summer.)

Dinner was great, we barbecued chicken and steak (classic) and had corn on the cob, fruit, salads; just lots of great summer food. It was de-lish. My mom even made homemade ice cream that we ate on top of slow-cooker peach cobbler. Mmmmm-mm. Rowan's birthday was a couple of days ago, so Dorthy made a cake for him too. Sounding like a great evening so far, right? All that was left was to wait for the sky to get dark enough for fireworks.

This is how our family firework show usually plays out: The guys (because they are so manly and are so pro at handling dangerous explosives) are in charge of lighting the fireworks and making a fun show to watch, while the wives and kids sit on chairs and blankets and watch the show-and the occasional close call. It was exciting and we could hardly wait for the sun to go down.

Remember what I said before about who wouldn't like fireworks? Well, Abi sure doesn't like them. Okay, let me re-phrase that; she hates them. She is terrified of them. I think it's mostly because of the noise, but even the less noisy ones make her panic. She buries her face in my shoulder and goes completely rigid, screaming the entire time. She ended up inside watching a movie with the volume up (because if she can hear them outside while she's in the house she gets scared). It sort of made me feel bad, because the other kids were having fun. Oh, well. Hopefully it won't last forever.

Camping, Parades, Cake and Make-Up

Earlier this month we took a family camping trip down at my grandparents' farm. We went the same weekend as the fourth of July and we had lots of fun. Kevin's brother and sister and her husband were able to come down as well. My only complaint, the heat. Call me dense, but I forgot that July was the hottest month of the year. We roasted. Then we decided that we'd plan another trip in a cooler month.

Other than that, like I said, lots of fun. Sometimes, it's nice to just get away from it all.


I didn't take a ton of pictures, because I kind of got sick and didn't have the energy to take them, but when I was feeling good, I managed to snap a few.

Like I said before, we went the same weekend as the fourth of July, so on the fourth there are always parades and fireworks and stuff to do in those little town of central Utah. Abi, me, my mom, Dorthy, Rowan, Grandma, and Grandpa Harward went to the Moroni parade. We came prepared with plastic bags to gather candy, but what I wasn't prepared for was the amount of people that were actually at the parade. I haven't been for a few years, but really don't remember that many people being there before.



They were also crowding the streets like they've never seen candy before. Also, it seemed like the people who were throwing the candy out of the back of trucks and so on, decided that they would get the kids with the smallest hands to throw out candy, so the big kids on the road were pushing little kids out of the way. Anyway, Abi liked it regardless, though she didn't quite get the concept at first.

Getting the hang of things

She really loved the floats with city royalty on them. Every time the would drive by she would point and say, "princess."

We left for home earlier that day. We took Oakley too, since there's so much open space for her to run around. Both she and Abi played hard, so they crashed hard shortly after getting in the car.


That night we planned to watch the Magna fireworks because they usually put on a good show. Abi and I met Dorthy, Rory and Rowan and set up our chairs and blankets to watch the show. It didn't disappoint. Don't let my crappy pictures fool you.



And can you guess how Abi reacted?


Yep, she fell asleep shortly before the show started and slept through the whole thing. Just like last year. Sigh. Oh, well. We're going again next year, I'm sure.

Last week Abi's cousin Riley turned 2, so she had a birthday party at the park. The kids had lots of fun playing on the playground. Melanie asked me to make Riley's cake. It turned out cute.

It also gave me an excuse to buy a couple more cake decorating tools, so win-win.

I don't know what it is with little girls and mommy's make-up, but they love it. I'm sure it's because they see mommy doing it, so they want to as well. Abi loves make-up. She has a fit when I put it away. The other day, she got into it (my own fault) and gave herself a make-over. The end result...

...zombie??? Or is it Chucky? Either way, it was hilarious.

Abi and Mommy after we were done putting our make-up on.

We're still having a good summer, so here's a couple pictures of Abi being a couch potato eating Cheetos for fun.